The Zee Brothers: Zombie Apocalypse Now?: Zombie Exterminators Vol.4

by Grivante

  “Oh shit,” Judas said from beside him. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Yep. I guess she knows we’re coming after all.”

  “What are we going to do, Jonah?”

  Jonah swept the binoculars across the compound, studying the layout and looking for something they could use to their advantage. Wiping sweat from his brow, he looked at where the sun lay in the sky. “Daylight’s dwindling, we either go in now or wait.” JJ gasped, letting him know her thoughts. She wouldn’t be pleased to leave Xanadu in Dr. Nitsau’s hands a minute longer, and he couldn't blame her. He gestured to Judas, handing back the binoculars. “Mount Dee-Dee. We’ll need her.”

  “Twelve,” Judas said under his breath, clicking the last mounting pin into place. He slid a cloth along Dee-Dee’s shining barrels. “Hank would’ve loved to see you in action like this.”

  Four heavy boxes of ammo sat in the truck bed, a long belt of large-caliber slugs fed from the first box into the gun. Judas hopped out and joined the others at the hood where they were buckling on armor, clips of ammunition, knives, and anything else they could find a spot for.

  “She’s ready,” Judas said and took the body armor his brother offered him, slinging it over his head.

  “Good, thank you, Judas.” Jonah pulled a strap tight on his own armor and patted the outer pockets of his suit, giving one last check. “Make sure and tie a gas mask to your belt. We may have to move quickly once we’re inside and there won’t be time to grab things we don’t already have with us.”

  “Um, Jonah?” Judas raised an eyebrow at his brother.

  “Yes?”

  “Exactly how do we get from the gate, passed that horde, and inside? Especially if she’s controlling them.”

  “Well, here’s the idea,” Jonah said, lighting a fresh cigar. “We’re going straight in, busting right through the main gate. Then, we’re gonna take a hard left or right, depending on where the dead are bunched up at, whatever gives us the least obstructed route. After that, we’ll drive to the pit's rim on either side of the compound, lure as many of them as possible, then I’ll throw Sasha in reverse and you’ll use Dee-Dee to carve us a path through them. We’ll head to the door, get inside, find Xanadu and—”

  “Kill that bitch!” JJ spat.

  Jonah looked at her with a smirk. “Yeah, and kill that bitch, once and for all.” He adjusted two clips and turned to Judas. “Are the grenades in the back?”

  “Yeah, want me to grab them?”

  “Yeah, we’re gonna need everything we’ve got for this.”

  “Ok.” He walked to the rear of the truck and returned with a two-foot wide wooden box, setting it on the truck’s hood. “By the way, I packed a little something extra earlier, figuring we might want it.”

  Jonah raised an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

  Judas opened the lid, revealing sixteen slots, half-filled with grenades and on the right a wider section where a bottle of brown whiskey lay. “Thought we’d need a drink before the day was over… hair of the dog and all, after the night we had.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Jonah said, reaching for the bottle. “Let’s enjoy this view a moment.” He waved his hand at the majestic desert landscape stretching away further than the eye could see. “Then we’ll drive down there and kick her ass.”

  The brothers took the time to attach the grenades to their vests, two frag and two incendiaries apiece. Jonah and JJ walked over and sat on the ledge, legs dangling off the sides. Judas opened Sasha’s door, reached in, and grabbed Jonah’s smartphone off the seat. By the time he turned back, Jonah was handing the whiskey to JJ, and the sun illuminated her, lighting the color in her hair, giving it a shimmering glow.

  Everything beautiful, Judas thought and bent to one knee, opening the camera app and holding the phone steady to focus in on her. At that instance, she twisted to face him, holding out the bottle and smiling.

  “Don’t you want a drink, Judas?” She caught sight of the phone in his hand and her smile widened.

  He took the picture. “Yeah, I’ll be right there. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to capture such a gorgeous view.”

  Her cheeks reddened and, as he joined them on the ledge, she blubbered out, “I love you two. So much!” She placed a palm on each of their thighs and squeezed.

  They both wrapped an arm around her and hugged her tight.

  “We love you too!”

  They sat there for a while, watching the dead mill about in the distance, and passed the bottle back and forth between them. Judas held the whiskey in the sunlight, examining the final swig. “Last call,” he said, then drained it in one swift drink before tossing it high into the air and over the edge. They watched it drop until it smashed on the rocks far below. “When this is over,” he said, “Let's take a trip to the Grand Canyon and do this same thing, but with a lot more booze and no zombies.”

  “You got it, sugar!” JJ said and leaned over, kissing his cheek.

  “Absolutely,” Jonah said, standing.

  They shared one last look at what awaited them, then, with a sigh, Jonah asked, “You ready?”

  “I’m green, bro. Let’s do this.”

  Part XVIII - Zombie Apocalypse Now!

  Sasha’s motor revved a quarter-mile from the compound’s gate. Judas hung out the passenger side window, binoculars in hand.

  “They’re still just milling about. Eyes are dormant. She may know we’re coming, but she doesn’t know we’re here.”

  “Good. That’ll help, I hope. Ok, Judas, hop out, get in back and hold on tight. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride. I’ll honk three times when it’s time for you mow them down with Dee-Dee.”

  “Ok, bro.” Judas opened his door to exit when JJ grabbed his arm, bent over, and kissed him. Her tongue parted his lips, leaving him blushing before she pulled away. “For luck.” She grinned.

  “We need all we can get,” he said, beaming, then leaned in and gave her a peck on the mouth.

  Jonah looked down at the 8-ball shifter knob in his hand and read the saying displayed in the window. ‘It is decidedly so.’ He grinned. Once Judas got situated in the bed, Jonah reached over and squeezed JJ’s hand. “Let’s go find Xanadu!”

  With a squeeze of her own in return, she smiled at him, cocked her pink revolver, and said, “Momma’s coming!”

  Jonah floored it and the shining silver truck spit a hail of dust and rocks on the desert road behind them. The motor roared like a hungry animal. Jonah clamped the cigar between his lips, JJ had her hands on the dash, and Judas squatted next to DeeDee, prepared for impact.

  They burst through the large chain-link gate with a crash, sending it hurtling into the air, eventually landing several yards ahead and flattening a dozen of the dead. Jonah slammed the brakes hard, turning to the left and spinning the truck into a brody, pelting the nearest of the masses with a shower of rocks. Like the zombies used in the attack on their garage that morning, many of these were very old dead, and the impact of the stones dropped them to ground.

  “Huh,” Jonah said, looking in the rearview mirror and watching them fall. “That would make this more entertaining.” He gassed it and took off along the fence line where there were few to no zombies. The ruckus they caused got their attention though and, with a single mind, they stumbled, walked, and fell in the direction of the noise making truck.

  “Hold on!” Jonah shouted as he swerved to avoid the nearest zombie. They were scattered before them and he realized he couldn’t evade them all. He aimed Sasha where they were thinnest and plowed straight into them, shattering the corpses and sending body parts flying like bowling pins. JJ bounced around in the passenger's seat, itching for a chance to take some of them out herself, but knowing at this point it was a waste of bullets.

  It took longer than expected to get from the gate to the far edge of the pit. By the time they made it there, the eyes of the dead were lighting up. Dr. Nitsau was in control.

  “Guess she knows we're here now,” JJ
said as a green-eyed head bounced across the hood.

  “Sure does,” Jonah answered. “It wouldn’t have been a secret after Judas starts firing, anyway.” He pulled the truck to a screeching stop and hit the button to lower the windows. “These automatic windows are a nice upgrade,” he said.

  “Glad you dig them.”

  “Ok, Judas, get ready!” he yelled out the window.

  In the truck bed, Judas was back on his feet and had DeeDee spun around, facing over the tailgate, his hat turned backward to keep the hair out of his eyes.

  “Woohoo!” he shouted over the earthquake-sounding rumble of the marching zombies. They now marched toward them. Green eyes lit up and focusing directly on him. “Shooting fish in a barrel. Can’t miss!”

  Jonah revved the engine, drawing them in and studying the growing size of the horde… no, herd. This was a herd. More than they had ever seen at one time before, at least a thousand. Far more than DeeDee had bullets for.

  “Shit.” He wiped a sweaty palm on his pants. “This isn’t going to be easy.”

  “Didn’t think it would be, sugar. Let’s do this and get in there before that bitch tries to get away again.”

  Jonah smiled and nodded, then honked the horn three times.

  In the back, Judas grinned and pulled the trigger that sent DeeDee’s barrels spinning. The majority of the zombies were at least fifty yards away, but at the speed she had them moving, they’d be on top of the truck soon enough.

  He flipped a switch on the bottom and did what he always loved to do, pulled the second trigger and unleashed DeeDee in rapid-fire mode. The hundred caliber slugs launched from the gun in a stream.

  ‘Whoomp, whoomp, whoomp!’

  The recoil caused DeeDee to buck and after only ten seconds he had to release the trigger as she now fired above their heads, wasting precious ammo. In the momentary silence, he heard Jonah rapidly honking the horn. He turned. “What is it?”

  “No rapid fire!” Jonah shouted. “The recoil will throw us straight into the pit.”

  Judas noticed behind them in the dirt, there were tire marks where Sasha had slid backward as he fired. “Whoops.” He flipped the switch and began single-firing the weapon again, swinging it back and forth and taking out large swaths of them with each round. “Ha! Zombie Apocalypse, my ass! It’s the DeeDee Apocalypse!” He yelled this mostly to himself as no one could hear him over the roar of the dead and the blasting of the gun.

  It took less than a minute to empty the first box of ammo, and then Judas scrambled to grab the belt out of the next one and feed it into DeeDee. By the time he returned to the trigger, the masses were much closer, having trampled right over the ones he laid waste to.

  “Jonah,” he yelled toward the cab. “We ain’t got enough bullets to take them all out.”

  Jonah knew that, but there wasn't time for another plan. He leaned out the window and yelled. “Carve a path through the middle. We’re gonna go straight through them.”

  “You got it, bro!” Judas said and worked DeeDee in a small arc through the center of the mass of dead. Then, as Jonah put the truck in gear and drove, Judas questioned to himself. “Wait, in reverse? Oh shit!”

  He squeezed the second trigger repeatedly, swinging the twelve shining and now smoking barrels from side to side. Sasha bucked against the opposing forces of tires rolling on the ground and hundred caliber rounds being propelled out the back. Before long, though, she rocketed across the parking lot as Judas rained permanent death upon the zombies.

  As they neared impact with the closest of the fallen bodies, he realized the fatal flaw in their plan. Sasha was a good truck, a big truck even, but it wasn't designed to run over hundreds of bodies on an already bumpy landscape. The gun clicked empty. He let loose of the triggers and fell to the bed of the truck, slamming his fist against Sasha’s rear window to get Jonah’s attention.

  Jonah looked back at him as the truck bounced and bucked. In the passenger’s seat, JJ held on to the door handle trying to keep from getting tossed out of the truck.

  “Hey,” she shouted. “If you’re gonna toss me around, you should at least give me some peanut butter cups!”

  “Sorry, sweets, it’s gonna be rough.” He glanced out the rear window. “What the hells the matter, why’d he stop firing?” Not seeing him anywhere, he added. “Where the hell did he go?”

  The bed of the truck rose high as the back tires climbed a pile of dead bodies and Jonah realized what was happening. There were simply too many, dead or alive. He put Sasha back into first gear and gave her gas. The vehicle lurched forward but went nowhere. The tires spun outside, letting out a screeching noise. He glanced at his side mirror and saw a muddy spray streaming into the air and realized they were burning out on top of the corpses.

  They’d taken her off-road enough times that Jonah knew the sensation. It was just like being stuck in the mud. He slammed it into reverse, giving her gas, then put her back in first, trying to rock the truck free.

  Outside, the zombies approached. Green eyes glowing as they stumbled closer, hands outstretched, hungering groans combining like the dull roar of cars driving on the freeway. Jonah smacked his hand against the steering wheel. They were stuck and within moments the dead would have them surrounded.

  He peeked in the rearview mirror and saw Judas struggling to load the next belt of ammo into DeeDee.

  “Here,” he turned to JJ as he opened the door, knocking a zombie over with it. “I’m gonna need you to drive.”

  “What?” JJ’s mouth hung open as she watched Jonah disappear, slamming the door behind him.

  Part XIX - One Way Ticket

  Judas pulled himself off the bed of the truck now that the impact and rocking had stopped. He could see the red mist from the tire spray drifting down over the bodies. The dead surrounded the vehicle, grasping through the slats in his direction, smacking against the sides and growling with hunger. The way they sat on the mound of corpses, he stood higher than them for the moment. He grabbed the belt of ammo from the third box.

  His hands were slick with sweat and it slipped from his grasp. He caught movement out the corner of his eye and reached up, grabbing the holstered shotgun from across his shoulders and pointed both barrels, only to find Jonah climbing into the back.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I thought you could use some help,” Jonah said, swinging the assault rifle into position and firing into the crowd of corpses. “Get that baby reloaded.”

  Judas turned and blasted the shotgun into a zombie reaching over the truck's side, then holstered it. He knelt, picking up and feeding the ammo belt into the gun as an idea came to him. He smacked the window and got JJ’s attention.

  “Floor it!”

  JJ’s face scrunched in confusion and she shook her head.

  “Now!” Judas yelled, turning and grabbing DeeDee by the handles. He pulled the first trigger to get the barrels spinning.

  Sasha roared, the tires churning and sending up a fresh spray of blood and rotted flesh into the air.

  Judas clicked the cannon over to rapid-fire mode and as soon as he depressed the second trigger, bullets slammed into the group of dead behind them, causing the large vehicle to move. The firing of the hundred-caliber gun pushed the truck from the rut it had carved into the bodies, giving it traction. Around them, the zombies clamored for the brothers in the back, arms grasping at them.

  Judas released the trigger, flipped the switch to single-fire mode and resumed shooting into the crowds as Sasha peeled away.

  Next to him, Jonah whooped. “Hot damn, you just saved our asses!”

  “That was close,” JJ said to herself in the cab, staring at the bloody handprints on her window where the dead had banged against it moments ago. “What do I do now?” The truck rocked and bucked as she smacked into bodies, trying to find a way clear of the encroaching zombies.

  “We can’t keep doing this.” She grit her teeth as she drove along the outer fence line to get away fr
om the bulk of their pursuers.

  In the truck's bed, the brothers continued to whoop and fire. “They're having the time of their lives.” She chuckled. "Oh, how I love my boys!"

  She came to the far-right edge of the pit and swung around, leaving a football field’s distance between them and the nearest of the zombies for the moment. She opened her door and stood on the side step.

  “You two okay?”

  “Yeah,” Judas panted. “That was a close one!”

  “That was damn quick thinking, good job,” Jonah said and smacked him on the shoulder.

  “Thanks! What do we do now?”

  “DeeDee alone ain’t gonna cut it and we can’t drive over that many. We either need to get inside or figure out a way to send them into the pit.” Jonah looked around uncertain. “With her controlling them though, I have no idea how. I’m outta ideas.”

  Judas stared out at the approaching green-eyed dead, wishing he had a chew in his lip. If he was about to die, what did it matter? Then he glanced over to the facilities entrance, noticing the open door and pointing. The dead were in a large v-shaped herd heading straight at them. The sides of it were clear except for a handful of slow-moving and decayed zombies.

  “We can drive around them, then shoot over to the main entrance and get inside.”

  Jonah followed his finger, seeing the opening and the mostly clear path, and nodded. “Great idea, Judas! That will work, but we’ll have that entire horde pinning us in there.”

  Judas shook his head. “No. You and JJ go. I’ll keep Sasha rolling and keep the herd distracted for as long as I can.”

  The roar of Nitsau's undead army grew as it neared, and Jonah studied his brother. “Bro, that could be a one-way ticket.”

  “I know,” he nodded.

  In the cab JJ stared out, eyes widening as she listened to the conversation. “Judas, you can’t!”

  Judas set a hand atop DeeDee and gave her a brief pat before jumping from the truck onto the sandy desert ground. “Let’s do this.” He gestured for his brother to head around to the passenger side and climbed in next to JJ.